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Mathematics Reviewed By Conny Crisalli of Bookpleasures.com

Conny Withay

Reviewer Conny Withay:Operating her own business
in office management since 1991, Conny is an avid reader, volunteers
reading the Bible to the elderly, and makes handmade jewelry. A cum
laude graduate with a degree in art living in the Pacific Northwest,
she is married with two sons, two daughter-in-laws, and one
granddaughter.

It prophetically
states in Daniel 12:4 “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased.” Tom Jackson has edited a beautiful book
titled, Mathematics - An Illustrated History of Numbers which
verifies how this Bible verse has come to pass down through the ages
from simple arithmetic to quantum physics.

This one hundred and
forty-four page, over-sized, hardbound book depicts several
mathematical equations on its front jacket. It is one of the new
“Ponderables” series dedicated to trying to answer some of the
oldest and important subjects in history. Each of the series
discusses one hundred breakthroughs that changed history and who did
what and when in a specific topic. This book caters to one hundred
milestones that changed the way we add, subtract, multiply and divide
from four thousand years ago to now in our everyday lives.

Editor Jackson delineates
the topics into four categories: prehistory to the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, new numbers and theories
and modern mathematics. Each breakthrough is from a half page to two
pages long, mentioning year discovered, by whom and how with tidbits
of interesting particulars and pictures or diagrams. After the
topics, the book includes a simple mathematics guide that is more
like a short dictionary of quantities, operations, geometry,
expressions, types of proof and numbers. Next there are eight
interesting “Imponderables” that are yet to be figured out,
thirty-nine great mathematicians’ profiles including their
birthplace, birth and death dates, and important finding along with a
notable paragraph. Finally there is a bibliography, index and
acknowledgements along with an extensive fold-out timeline with
mathematical enigmas and symbols on one side and over one thousand
milestone facts covering math, science, world and culture on the
other.

Want more information on
any of the six fields of math? Need to know a short synopsis of the
Golden Ratio, Napier’s Bones, quaternions, or fractals? If one did
not know the word “computer” originated in 1613, there are over
seventeen other pages mentioning its development or use. Or check out
Topic #73 Hilbert’s 23 Problems and see if you can be the one to
solve the three unanswered problems to date. Interestingly, God is
mentioned in the index reflecting only two locations, but His
existence relating to mathematics also was mentioned on Topic 80 –
Godel’s Theorem. With a plethora of math topics, even a person who
avoided calculus and trigonometry in high school will find something
stimulating.

Needless to say, any
student of math or science can lose themselves easily in this perfect
coffee table book, surely to enliven any boring conversation and turn
it into an educational debate with interesting facts and findings.
Pick a page and learn something today!